A LENGTHY dispute to re-name Durham Tees Valley Airport has finally been resolved with intellectual property rights to “Teesside Airport” wholly relinquished by a business guru.

Chris Joseph had asked the Tees Valley Combined Authority to pay £250,000 for the intellectual property rights to “Teesside Airport” he bought up in 2015.

But the Teesside businessman has revealed he is relinquishing ownership of the name on the back of “personal attacks” and for the good of his own mental health.

It opens the door for Durham Tees Valley Airport to be official renamed “Teesside International” this summer.

Mr Joseph had mounted official opposition to the TVCA buying up the name “Teesside International” in April.

Mayor Ben Houchen accused Mr Joseph of acting in bad faith and “holding Teessiders to ransom” after the combined authority was asked to cough up a six-figure sum for his intellectual rights.

However, Mr Joseph has revealed he will no longer pursue his cause.

He said: “The tirade of online abuse triggered by the mayor’s statement has put my mental health at serious risk.

“Medical advice from a specialist trauma psychologist has left me with no option but to relinquish the suit of trademarks, companies and domain names which I have held since 2015.

“I have been advised to prioritise my well-being and withdraw from this situation.”

Mr Joseph lives with bipolar disorder and has fought the illness for decades.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he “put his money where his mouth was” by securing a suit of intellectual property trademarks after the name was changed to “Durham Tees Valley” by former owners Peel in 2004.

He tried to sell the rights to Peel unsuccessfully in June 2016 before the airport was brought back into public hands in January this year.

Mr Joseph added: “Despite the fact that, as an advertising agency, we deal in intellectual properties that are worth significant sums, I feel that it is in the best interests of the people of Teesside and the prospect of a new dawn for our airport and our area that we relinquish the “Teesside Airport” intellectual property suit with immediate effect.

“I sincerely hope that Teesside Airport is a success and that the “Teesside” name we believed in for years and advocated in 2015, long before Mr Houchen came on the scene, now becomes the significant marketing and advertising factor we always knew it to be.”

The airport is being run in a 75/25 split with operator Stobart Aviation with the aim of bringing in 1.4m passengers by in the next decade.

In December, a poll answered by 14,000 people saw 93 per cent of responders say they wanted the airport renamed “Teesside International” – the name it had between 1966 and 2004.

Mr Joseph said he’d struggled to sleep due to the abuse he’d received on social media.

He added: “It’s better for the people of Teesside this is resolved so nobody can use this as an excuse for the fortunes of the airport.

“At the end of the day, I’m a businessman – not a politician.”

Mayor Houchen thanked Mr Joseph for relinquishing the naming rights.

He added: “After a long and deeply unnecessary episode, I’m pleased he’s seen the light. I’ve always been confident we were on the right side – not just legally, but on the right side of fairness and decency too.

“No one man should be able to profit from a name that should belong to the people.

“Any criticism Mr Joseph has faced, however regrettable, is of his own making. The people of Teesside could see what he was doing and they didn’t like it.

“Given today’s welcome news, I’m delighted to confirm that our publicly-owned airport will revert back to Teesside International this summer.

“Now we need to put this issue to bed and focus all our efforts into making our airport the success we know it can be.”